1. Field of Invention
This invention pertains to a method of producing a scintillator detector arrays that may be used in various applications, such as, but not limited to, a PET detector module or nuclear physics applications. More specifically, it relates to a method of producing a high resolution detector array that can be coupled to photodetectors. In certain applications, the photodetector provides an accurate timing pulse and initial energy discrimination, identification of the crystal interaction, which may include the depth of interaction (DOI).
2. Description of the Related Art
When constructing scintillator arrays, it is known to use block scintillator arrays with saw-cut grooves packed with reflector powder. However, this method is not feasible for producing arrays of individual crystals. It is also known to use reflector molds made of a white compound. However, it is often desired to produce light output with a greater depth dependence than these type of reflectors are capable of producing.
Finally, it is also known to hand wrap “plumbers” Teflon® tape around individual detectors as a standard reflector choice for research PET cameras. However, plumbers Teflon® tape is not a realistic choice for large cameras and/or cameras that use very small crystals. Further, hand wrapping individual crystals is both time consuming and difficult to do consistently. Hand wrapping with Teflon® tape also limits the reduction of crystal size for future cameras. In addition, plumbers Teflon® tape, or thicker 8 mil Teflon® tape, is not an ideal reflector. It stretches and creeps, so it can be difficult to accurately cover only the surface of each crystal not coupled to a photodetector. The Teflon® tape also becomes transparent when squeezed, which occurs when making a compact scintillator crystal array, and when glue wicks through it. Moreover, it is difficult to wrap the individual crystals tightly with thicker 8 mil Teflon® tape resulting in inaccurate measures of depth dependence.